There is known from Ericson Review Vol.61, No.1, Stockholm SE, P51-58, R. DIETSCh `Hotel Communication System`, a hotel communication apparatus comprising a PABX switching network providing a plurality of guest extension lines each coupled to a respective communication station provided in a guest room, and a property management system for storing room status information concerning each of a plurality of guest rooms served by said guest extension lines, each guest communication station including signalling means operable by a caller for establishing a switched connection, via the PABX switching network.
With the increasing sophistication of modern telephone exchange systems, it is becoming possible for a telephone exchange to provide to a caller a variety of services ancillary to the primary function of the exchange of establishing a switched telephone connection to a single party at a selected destination telephone line. Thus, a modern telephone exchange can provide for multi-party conference calls, so-called `chat-lines`, and a variety of information and entertainment services involving the replaying of recorded messages or selected audio entertainment. EP-A-0453831 describes a system providing control of access to services of the exchange such as call answering based upon identity acknowledgement. A more recent innovation enables a calling party to select a conversation call to another unknown party selected from a pool of available participants based upon characteristic critera deemed by the calling party to be desirable in a party to be called.
The present invention is based upon the concept that the temporary residents in a hotel at any given time represent a pool of potential culling parties to whom could be provided services of the kind available from a public telephone switching system, but which, in the context of the society represented by the transient population of a hotel, can be all the more valuable in that the services can be targeted at providing to a hotel guest, useful services hitherto unavailable in the hotel context.
However, the provision of facilities such as the above in the context of a hotel containing an essentially transient population involves difficulties that do not exist with the analogous services provided by the public telephone exchange system wherein each calling party can be identified in terms of an established subscriber exchange line.